Pedagogy - Plato's Instructional Design
Much of the basis for PLATO® Learning curriculum can be traced back to 1956 when Benjamin Bloom worked with a group of educational psychologists to develop a taxonomy that classified six levels of learning: 1) Knowledge, 2) Comprehension, 3) Application, 4) Analysis, 5) Synthesis, and 6) Evaluation.
Bloom’s theories have been refined over the decades. In the 1990s, cognitive psychologist Lorin Anderson worked with educational psychologist David R. Krathwohl to publish an adaptation of Bloom’s work that reflected a taxonomy more closely tied to 21st century learning. The six levels of learning in the Anderson-Krathwohl taxonomy are 1) Remembering, 2) Understanding, 3) Applying, 4) Analyzing, 5) Evaluating, and 6) Creating.
Building on the work of Bloom, Anderson, and Krathwohl, the International Center for Leadership in Education, under the leadership of Dr. Bill Daggett, created a Rigor/ Relevance Framework model for learning and student achievement based on two dimensions. The first dimension is rigor, which refers to academic rigor, or level of knowledge and learning, as defined in the taxonomies of Bloom and Anderson- Krathwohl. The second dimension is relevance, meaning the ability to apply concepts or skills to solve real-world problems. Relevance, as defined in Daggett’s Application Model of Rigor/Relevance, has a five-level continuum:
- Level 1—Knowledge in one discipline
- Level 2—Applying knowledge in one discipline
- Level 3—Applying knowledge across multiple disciplines
- Level 4—Applying knowledge to predictable real-world situations
- Level 5—Applying knowledge to unpredictable real-world situations
This body of work, and other related research, form the basis for PLATO curriculum.
Of course, education is very dynamic, and online education, in particular, changes rapidly. That is why we have a dedicated team of education development experts whose role is to continually research and study trends in education, online learning, pedagogy, cognition, and other related areas, and to collaborate with our instructional design team.
PLATO Learning courses are developed using rigorous state and national standards, including those from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics the National Council of Teachers of English and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation index of A-rated states. Teachers and program administrators also have access to state and national standards within the PLATO system, which allows them to customize courses to address local standards and pacing guides. Teachers can add, remove, or resequence course content to meet their particular requirements.
PLATO Learning has always used a mastery-based model to build the content at the heart of its courses and curriculum. PLATO Learning provides semester-long courses on a range of core and elective subjects. Developers start with a curriculum structure built around discrete learning objectives. Then each learning module, or lesson, is focused on one individual objective. Each module includes an introduction to the new material, a chance to practice or apply new knowledge, and an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the objective before progressing to the next module. This structure is built into units of related material and includes pretests to assess prior knowledge, as well as posttests and end-of-semester tests to confirm mastery for broader levels of content beyond the lesson.